Was Anyone Else At All Disturbed: Half Ton Teens?

Skinnytime

On Sunday, I caught two TLC shows that just blew me away. This sounds ridiculous - but they have profoundly altered what I will eat and what I will feed my children. They have had a huge impact on what I want my children to learn about nutrition and how I hope they will come to feel about food.
I was so saddened by what I saw on this show!
One of the moms at least got it right. She said that if she had it to do all over again that she would change everything. The other mom - a mom of a 16 year old boy who was going to undergo bariatric surgery - was in such denial! She said she couldn't stop buying junk food because it wouldn't be fair to deprive her other babies!!! It made me so mad!:mad: and sad Doesn't she know she's just setting her other children on the same path? :mad:
Don't get me wrong - it's not like I won't ever allow my children a donut, but I hope to teach them to save things like that as the exception, rather than the rule.
Was anyone else at all disturbed by these shows?

Zara11

On Sunday, I caught two TLC shows that just blew me away. This sounds ridiculous - but they have profoundly altered what I will eat and what I will feed my children. They have had a huge impact on what I want my children to learn about nutrition and how I hope they will come to feel about food.
I was so saddened by what I saw on this show!
One of the moms at least got it right. She said that if she had it to do all over again that she would change everything. The other mom - a mom of a 16 year old boy who was going to undergo bariatric surgery - was in such denial! She said she couldn't stop buying junk food because it wouldn't be fair to deprive her other babies!!! It made me so mad!:mad: and sad Doesn't she know she's just setting her other children on the same path? :mad:
Don't get me wrong - it's not like I won't ever allow my children a donut, but I hope to teach them to save things like that as the exception, rather than the rule.
Was anyone else at all disturbed by these shows?

Sounds like a debate about whether that is child abuse or not. Horrible. My weight was my own fault - my mother taught me how to eat well, which I've fallen back on to lose weight. I hope to teach my own children how to feel their best.

wjranch

I hear ya! If only we could all eat anything we want and be healthy!!
Oh wait, we can! Just in moderation...... that is what a good parent must --- MUST --- instill in their children.
We live in an instant gratification world and that makes it even harder for youngsters who have no 'self policing' skills to stop themselves. It is up the parent to let them know when enough is enough.
I feel sad for the kids who have such weak, ignorant parents, who allow them to self induldge until you find a 16 year old in need of gastric bypass.

molsongirl

I watched that with my kids, none are overweight, but my 5 yr old son, kept saying, thats what happens when you don't eat "healthfy" (as he says it) foods....imagine how different their lives would have been if only mom would have taught them something as simple as the food pyramid. I do agree that I think it's definite child abuse, it's sad, and that poor 16yr old boys mom, didn't even visit the poor thing!
On the flip, that 19 yr old kid, would vomit on himself, and not even take off his damn shirt, just wiped it off and sat in it, he's obese not a cripple, change the shirt, that was disgusting.

wmcnicol

I hate to see that. We have never kept soda or candy in our house. Special occasions?? Sure. But I don't want my kids thinking that soda and candy are an everyday thing. We are also very active. Every chance we get we are outside taking a walk playing sports in the back yard or doing anything outside that we can. I think its important to teach your kids those things (eating healthy and being active) because if you don't who will??
I also think that what those parents are doing to their children in the way of nutrition is a form of child abuse. As a parent it is you JOB to keep them healthy when they are little cause they sure aren't going to do it for them selves.
It just really makes me mad to see that. Those poor kids.

TheMaidOfAstolat

I agree, you have to teach your kids what is healthy and what's not. My daughter has better eating habits than my hubby. She'd rather have a cup of mandarin oranges and salad than a snack cake. She does get piece of candy daily on the way home from school. It's usally a fun size 3 muskateer or an individual twizzler. As long as it's small and once a day there is really no harm. She loves tofu and edamame and spinich (the one thing that I wouldn't touch when I was her age).
What those moms did to the kids is deplorable and unfortunaly the kids may never loose all the weight because they were never told what to eat, how much, or how often.

msarro

My mother always cooked big family style meals, and when I was young I would get yelled at if I didn't finish my plate. I see my brother doing the same thing with his kids now. Sadly though, they have next to no concept of portions, and what actual serving sizes are. I've tried to tell them, but they tell me I don't know what I'm talking about... despite being the lightest, fittest member of the entire family. I'm also the only member of my family without diabetes.

I have a feeling, and have been praying for this for a very long time, that the reason there is a genetic link to diabetes is that families all tend to eat the same way.

Its terrible what those people are doing to their kids... they're leading them down a terrible, painful path.

fjtcjt

It is child abuse, plain and simple.

adopt4

It made me sick in my heart. I mean, the kids aren't mobile enough to go out and get their own food, so you would think they'd be able to give them better stuff to eat, right? Not a box of donuts for a snack.

Bariatric surgery is NOT a good solution. Yes, they'll lose weight if they do it right, follow the plan - but they will also become malnourished and have a hard time healing, etc. Plus all that skin they'll have from losing the weight so fast.. I wouldn't have my kid/teen have that kind of surgery if there was any other option (which there is!!!) because it's permanent and has it's own sets of problems. Plus, it's easy to fail and stay huge even with the surgery if you don't follow the plan.

I worry about my kids - ages 6, 6 and 3 - 2 are from Africa so are very skinny, the other has an eating disorder and is very skinny, I'm always telling all of them they need to eat more (it's healthy stuff, but none of them eat enough yet to be healthy eaters). I worry that when things turn around for them that they'll do the opposite and eat too much....

yankeefamily05

WOW..so sad. My mom buys mostly junk food when she grocery shops. Donuts, cookies, chips you name it they eat it.

Since I started this lifestyle change 3 weeks ago, I don't even crave any of it anymore. I cringe everytime I see my little brother sitting in his room playing video games and finishing off a bag of chips!!!!! EWWW..And they drink SO much soda.....I already told my mother not to even try giving my little girl any crap.:explode: Only 2 out of my 7 brothers and sister are of a healthy weight..The rest of us are overweight .... :noway: :grumble:

yankeefamily05

That is how it was in my house growing up to. We couldn't leave the table until we finished our plates! We always ate very heavy, big meals.. Like mashed potatoes with extra butter with meatloaf and corn with extra butter...:ohwell:

Cheers to us for trying to be healthier:drinker: